‘One point Edward Snowden made bears examination: he had to do what he did, he argues, because the National Security Agency hierarchy required him to “report wrongdoing for those most responsible for it”.’ Photograph: Alex Milan Tracy/NurPhoto/Corbis

Harold Evans: No editor wants to give aid to murderous enemies, but abuses of power must be revealed

'In our system, parliament is meant to be sovereign. Yet here, in GCHQ, is a state agency operating apparently beyond the reach of parliament, extending its remit without the permission or even the knowledge of MPs.' Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Jonathan Freedland: Instead of shooting the messenger, MPs should be affronted that they have been kept in the dark over activity they are meant to oversee Continue reading...

Stella Young for ABC Ramp Up: As a disabled person, I'm relieved at the defeat of the voluntary assisted dying bill yesterday. Doctors might know about our biology, but it doesn't mean they know about our lives

The Rolling Stones outside the Tin Pan Alley Club in London, 1963. The BBC talent scout who rejected them as 'unsuitable for our purposes' was 'probably correct in concluding that the band was not the sort of thing the corporation wished to see on its screens'. Photograph: Terry O'Neill/Getty Images

Mark Lawson: Stars of the future can be hard to spot especially if, like David Bowie, they perform Chim-Chim-Cheree at the audition Continue reading...

US president Richard Nixon with China's premier Chou Enlai, left, and Shanghai Communist party leader Chang Chun-chiao during his 1972 visit. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Hans Christof von Sponeck, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann and Denis J Halliday: As with Kennedy and Khrushchev or Nixon and the Chinese, resolution of conflict only comes when we reach out to our enemies and negotiate

'Does nursery school make children more hyperactive? Er, probably. Being put in a room with 22 other four-year-olds, all of whom are mad as a box of frogs anyway, can do that to a little fella.' Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett: First thoughts: The conservative agenda over early years care is more about making mothers feel like failures than the needs of their children Continue reading...

‘David Cameron says he's empowered the Bank of England to stop a bubble being created in London. This is like saying you've empowered the Bank's governor, Mark Carney, to stop it raining.' Illustration: Matt Kenyon

Zoe Williams: Of course we need more homes in the south-east. But the pressure from foreign investors puts even town halls at risk

Roy Hodgson: 'He doesn’t play up to the media, chase celebrity or try to show off – unlike too many ­politicians of the modern era. He is a moderate. And he takes the long view. Good for him. But good for us too.' Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images

Martin Kettle: The England manager – unglamorous, grounded, a patriot and a European, a man with a hinterland – is my kind of public figure Continue reading...

The number of people using food banks is rising. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Suzanne Moore: While we are invited to celebrate the vast salary Angela Ahrendts will get when she moves from Burberry to Apple, poor people are returning food to food banks because they can't afford to heat it up

The opening of the transcript issued by Surrey police of a 2009 interview with Jimmy Savile. 'Most of his boasting goes unchallenged. The ease with which he gets away with it is breathtaking.' Photograph: Surrey Police/PA

Joan Smith: Savile's interview is a textbook example of the ease with which a confident abuser can run rings around his interrogators

Anti-austerity protesters in politician masks gather on O'Connell Street in Dublin city centre as the Irish government announces its budget for 2014. Photograph: Brendan Donnelly/Brendan Donnelly/Demotix/Corbis

Michael Burke: The Irish economy remains in depression. It is the ECB's bailout of the banks we are being invited to celebrate

Tian Tian arrived in a container flown to Edinburgh airport in December 2011. The city's zoo is paying around £600,000 each year to rent Tian Tian and male panda Yang Guang from China. Photograph: David Moir/Reuters

Patrick Barkham: Zoos should quit their addiction to big-beast box office gold and switch to a business model based on our smaller native species Continue reading...

'The charity Birthrights is calling for a reappraisal of how we judge a successful birth: no longer should it be merely about physical health, but psychological health as well.' Photograph: Pascal Deloche/Godong/Corbis

Joanna Moorhead: A Mumsnet survey shows the psychological impact of a difficult labour affects the child's future wellbeing as well as the mother's Continue reading...

Harris Academy in Upper Norwood has put posters up outlawing "innit", "bare", "like" and "extra" as well as the heinous practice of beginning sentences with "basically" or ending them with "yeah". Photograph: @artsemergency

Will Coldwell: The Harris Academy in London's Upper Norwood should not mute pupils' voices, but instead look for better ways of motivating them Continue reading...

'The disclosures made by Edward Snowden have not led to a significant public outcry in [Poland] … nobody posed serious questions regarding the impact of Prism on Polish citizens.' Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Adam Bodnar and Katarzyna Szymielewicz: Poland's totalitarian history means its people accept surveillance – and dismiss Edward Snowden's disclosures – more than they should Continue reading...

Rachael Dunlop: 99% of experts support the view that childhood vaccinations are overwhelmingly safe and effective, whilst 1% do not. Why then would the mainstream media give any kind of air time to science deniers?

‘If you have a taste of what it's like to be looked after, you don't need to be told to ask, as [CQC head] Andrea Sutcliffe now tells her staff they should, "is it good enough for my mum?".' Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Christina Patterson: If we want care workers to do their jobs well we have to give them proper training, not install hidden cameras in their workplace Continue reading...

A tactile portrait of Emily Davison and her guide dog, Unity, created by Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky for the Touch Art Fair from the image below. Photograph: Claire Follea

Emily Davison: It's not only sighted people who can appreciate art. A new event – the first of its kind for visually impaired people in the UK – invites people to touch the exhibits Continue reading...

'Telling children that their fun time will also have a healthy dose of obligation can only lead to them feeling as though they have to spend their lives enduring people they find boring lest they upset their feelings.' Photograph: Maria Teijeiro/Getty Images/OJO Images

Oscar Rickett: Whatever a prep school head exhorts, you can bring children to a birthday tea but you can't force them to like each other Continue reading...

Poland's football team are put through their paces at Wembley in preparation for the World Cup qualifier against England. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Jonathan Freedland: First thoughts: The World Cup qualifier in Wembley will attract 18,000 Poles, reinforcing London's credentials as a diverse European city, different from the rest of the UK Continue reading...

Would you be happy preparing a rabbit that had been run over? Photograph: Great British Chefs

The new face of the RSPB has urged the public to consider eating roadkill. Miranda Krestovnikoff said it was a chance to be connected to what we all eat, and source it directly. Tell us if you would be happy to eat roadkill, or if you prefer your meat to come pre-packaged.

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre. 'Strangely, this suspicion of the state and the People Who Know Best does not appear to extend to the security services, whose assault on our ­freedoms Dacre was defending'. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

George Monbiot: Rightwing politicians and their press use talk of patriotism to disguise where their true loyalty lies: the wealthy elite Continue reading...

Careful that bottle doesn't get too hot … 'There is a marked tendency to expect of pregnant women risk-avoiding behaviour that is either unfounded or impossible or often both.' Photograph: Photographer's Choice/Getty Creative

Zoe Williams: There is a political subtext to the toxins-under-the-bed overinterpretation of new research into plastic food packaging and miscarriages Continue reading...

'If the ethics and sexual politics of 50 Shades of Grey are subject to debate, they pale beside the details of the titles reportedly on sale through the country’s leading online booksellers.' Photograph: Rob Kim/Getty Images

Ally Fogg: First thoughts: Censorship's not the answer, but that doesn't mean deeply disturbing written pornography should be on sale via major online booksellers Continue reading...

Anna Burke: Women think effort will be rewarded, but there is no meritocracy within the ALP. The current outcome of the shadow ministry reflects a reversion to the 'faceless men' being firmly in control

‘We should break the spurious link between our critique of the family wage and flexible capitalism by militating for a form of life that de-centres waged work and valorises unwaged activities, including – but not only – carework.’ Photograph: Robert Convery/Alamy

Nancy Fraser: A movement that started out as a critique of capitalist exploitation ended up contributing key ideas to its latest neoliberal phase Continue reading...